https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=B0fqLSIEM2w
David asks, when explaining the parable of the sower, Christ talks about Isaiah, through Isaiah, about forgiving them their sins, if only they would just turn and understand with their hearts. As a denizen of the edge of the world for over 10 years, my physical, spiritual, and life in general has fallen apart completely. I’m sorry to hear this, David. I wanted to ask you, what is meant by understand with their hearts? Does this refer to the flash of insight and meaning, to doing various good deeds, to, does it refer to repentance, to get your life together? Does it refer to becoming a monk and spiritual purification? I’m seeped in sin. Please help me to understand, good sir. And so the notion of the heart is really just the notion of the center of your being. And so the idea of turning and understanding with your heart has to do with, first of all, turning in the sense of being receptive. To turn, you have to stop going in the direction you’re going. And so you have to, that’s one of the aspects of repentance. Repentance means that you’re going in a direction and then you turn, right? You turn around. And then when you turn, then you also have to be, your heart has to be available. The center of your being has to be available to receive the new seed, you would say. And so if you understand things with your heart and with the center of your being, then they will transform you and they will become, they will kind of have repercussions on the rest of your life. But the thing is, is that you can’t, it’s hard to provoke that. It’s hard for you to provoke understanding things with your heart. And the best way to do it is to repent. To break down your, and it’s not just like a moral thing that you hear all the time. It really is a structural thing, which is that if you want to have light, you have to break down the existing patterns. And so if you repent from your sins and you do it sincerely and you do it every time that you sin and you make a habit of repentance, then you’re breaking down the kind of disorder, let’s say the parasitical patterns that are in your life and you open yourself up to then understanding Christ with your heart or receiving Christ in your heart to use a kind of evangelical way of talking about it. And then that will take hold in your center and it will start to ripple out. But like I said, because it’s hard to do that, it’s hard for you to will that into being. The only way to really do it is through repentance is by starting by breaking down the current patterns. And that’s what baptism does as well. Baptism is a breakdown of the kind of dysfunctional patterns that are there at the time.